1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to computer programs and, particularly, to computer systems used to navigate logical processes and virtual environments.
2. Related Art
One method of presenting a virtual tour of a logical process is through a temporal presentation, e.g., through a film or video, or through a series of slides, pictures, or flow diagrams. However, the drawback of such a method is that the ability to jump to different parts of the tour is based on time rather than on steps in the process. In addition, a virtual tour of a logical process that includes a mixture of films, videos, slides, pictures, flow diagrams, etc. may not be amenable to a purely temporal presentation.
Virtual tours of real, physical environments are commonly presented through film or video. While such presentations offer high visual accuracy, the progress of the tours is generally limited to a single, static route chosen by the photographer or editor. In other words, an observer of the tours has none of the choices usually available to someone who is physically in the environment, e.g., choices such as turning one way or the other at an intersection, skipping uninteresting paths, or proceeding directly to a favorite location. The interaction by an observer with the environment is limited to commands such as start, stop, fast forward or reverse.
A further limitation of this approach is that the observer generally has no other context besides the image itself. That is, the limited field of view makes it difficult for the observer to orient himself or herself in a complex environment.
For tours in virtual and logical environments, computer systems are commonly used to render images from models representing the virtual and logical environments. As opposed to videotaped presentations, such systems can be highly interactive since the images are rendered in real time. There is, however, a tradeoff between cost and visual accuracy. Computer systems capable of rendering very high-resolution images in real time are prohibitively expensive, while more affordable systems produce inferior quality images. Additionally the creation of rendering computer systems requires highly specialized technical expertise to produce.